How to Stop Overusing These 4 Common words in Your Writing
Improve your writing by avoiding the overuse of common words.
Someone once said something about writing a million words to find your voice. I agree it takes at least that many although I haven’t reached the milestone myself yet so I couldn’t say with any certainty. The words you write matter though. Writing ‘the’ one million times isn’t going to improve your writing. Each time you write, there should be some improvement from the last time.
Sometimes there’s no way to avoid the use of certain words, but that’s no reason to overuse them either.
Common words make your writing passive, boring, and can cause you to run out of thoughts about your topic because their overuse boxes you in.
Four Common Words to Avoid Using Over & Over
Common Word #1: If
Starting a sentence with ‘if’ can come across as lazy. It’s speculative and unclear. Writing in an active and authoritative voice means being certain about what you’re saying.
And here’s a little writer’s secret: most of us aren’t completely certain about what we’re saying, we’re only pretty sure and simply avoid writing like that.
